Public access to policing data for England and Wales.
Council area
Sandwell crime rate and statistics (council area)
Updated October 2026.
Police published 36,398 street-crime records for the Sandwell council area from September 2025 to August 2026. That is 0.1% more than in the 12 months before. The rate is 106.5 per 1,000 residents counted in the Census 2021, against 110.5 for West Midlands Police. A residents-only rate reads high where many people visit. Police locations are approximate.
These figures cover the whole area Sandwell council runs. Its boundary can differ from the place people call Sandwell: it can take in other towns and villages, and part of a town can sit in a neighbouring council area.
September 2025 to August 2026. Street-crime records include anti-social behaviour.
Street-crime records
36,398
Latest month (August 2026)
3,172
Year-on-year
+0.1%
Month-by-month totals
3,4780
3.0k
Sep
3.1k
Oct
3.0k
Nov
2.8k
Dec
2.8k
Jan
2.8k
Feb
3.1k
Mar
3.1k
Apr
3.0k
May
3.1k
Jun
3.5k
Jul
3.2k
Aug
Show as a table
Month
Street-crime records
September 2025
2,981
October 2025
3,095
November 2025
3,048
December 2025
2,807
January 2026
2,770
February 2026
2,783
March 2026
3,098
April 2026
3,079
May 2026
2,990
June 2026
3,097
July 2026
3,478
August 2026
3,172
Street-crime records per 1,000 residents
Published street-crime records (including anti-social behaviour), September 2025 to August 2026, per 1,000 usual residents in the Census 2021.
Sandwell council area
106.5
West Midlands Police
110.5
Residents are the Census 2021 usual residents of every postcode the ONS Postcode Directory places in this council area, added up by CrimeMapsUK from the census postcode counts. Records are assigned through the same postcodes, so both numbers cover the same ground. The total can differ slightly from the council's official population.
36,398 records and 341,607 residents. Residents-only rates overstate crime where many people visit who do not live there, such as city centres, stations, and retail parks. Residents are counted at March 2021 while records are current, so areas with many newer homes can read higher.
No England and Wales comparison is shown, because not every force involved has published every month of this window.
Rates cover England and Wales only. Residents: Office for National Statistics, Census 2021 postcode estimates, Open Government Licence v3.0. How rates are built.
Top crime categories
Share of the Sandwell council area's records in the same trailing window. The black line on each bar marks the England and Wales share for the same months.
Violence and sexual offences44.3%
16,137 records · England and Wales 35.5%
Shoplifting9.4%
3,428 records · England and Wales 8.7%
Vehicle crime8.8%
3,209 records · England and Wales 5.1%
Criminal damage and arson7.9%
2,877 records · England and Wales 7.0%
Public order6.3%
2,291 records · England and Wales 6.9%
Other theft5.8%
2,121 records · England and Wales 6.7%
Drugs3.6%
1,316 records · England and Wales 3.4%
Anti-social behaviour3.5%
1,256 records · England and Wales 15.7%
Where records cluster in the Sandwell council area
Records by part of the Sandwell council area: the south-east 9,520, the north 6,691, the south-west 6,411, the south 5,509, the north-west 5,464, the north-east 4,530, the west 2,856, the east 2,832, the centre 2,181.
North is at the top. Each hexagon is about 1.2 km across, the size the crime map uses zoomed out, and holds at least one of the Sandwell council area's postcodes; darker ones hold more records. Hexagons at the edge also hold records from neighbouring council areas, and the Sandwell council area's records placed outside these hexagons are not drawn, so the map's counts won't add up to the page's total. Police place each record at an approximate public point, so this shows which parts of the Sandwell council area records cluster in, not where incidents happened. Explore the Sandwell council area on the crime map.
Year by year
Calendar-year totals for the Sandwell council area (December 2013 to August 2026).
A council area follows the council's boundary (ONS local authority district E08000028), which can differ from the place people call Sandwell.
Published locations are approximate, and each record counts for the council area of its nearest postcode, using the council codes in the ONS Postcode Directory. Counts near the boundary are indicative.
These are counts of published police records, not all crime, and not a safety score.
Other sites can show a different figure for Sandwell. These counts include anti-social behaviour, cover the 12 published months shown, and assign each record by its nearest postcode. The rate divides by Census 2021 residents of the same postcodes, not by a later mid-year population estimate.
Districts with a page and at least 5% of their live postcodes in this council area. A district can cross a council boundary, so its page counts records on both sides.